1-800-FLOWERS

I placed a flower centerpiece order with 1-800-flowers as a thank you to friends I had stayed overnight with on several occasions. It was to be delivered in advance of Thanksgiving so they could use it for the holidays. But 1-800-flowers never fulfilled my order, but still charged my credit card. They never contacted me to let me know, I just happen to ask my friends how they liked the flowers and they said, "What flowers?" This was 3 weeks after the flowers were supposed to be delivered! If I had not called 1-800-flowers to complain, I think they would have just kept my money. As it was, my credit card did not get reimbursed until almost 6 weeks later! My outrage is that the customer service representative that I spoke with, just didn't seem that horrified that they hadn't completed the order, or contacted me, or reimbursed me. It was almost like it must happen all the time, as if they hoped I wouldn't find out the flowers were never delivered. She tried to explain that no local flower companies "accepted" the order, so therefore it was not completed. After several promptings, she did offer to reimburse my credit card, and give me $20 off on my next order. The problem is, there will be no "next order!" It seems to me this is a very basic courtesy that the company should have a system in place to notify the customer when their order is not completed. At the very minimum, there should be an automatic reimbursement to the customer's credit card. FYI, I asked the local flower company why they wouldn't have accepted a 1-800-flowers order and she explained they quit working with 1-800-flowers a long time ago because of lack of payment. So it appears that there are other problems with 1-800-flowers. I have also placed this complaint with the Better Business Bureau because of, what I believe, are unethical practices.